I invite you to my Salon, a cyberworld version of European and Asian gatherings in centuries past, where artists and intellectuals met in the home of an encouraging and inspiring host. It is my good fortune to be acquainted with many fascinating people, whom I will be pleased to introduce to the reader for your education and entertainment.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

David Herrle Enraptures Us With "Sharon Tate And The Daughters Of Joy."

Lovers of poetry may know David Herrle for his book, Abyssinia, Jill Rush and his popular ezine SubtleTea. Now he's here to discuss his new book, which blends poetry with prose, Sharon Tate And The Daughters Of Joy. We're joined by a dear friend who actually introduced me to David's work years ago, poet and author Collin Kelley.Collin
Kelley: In one sentence describe
this new collection.

David Herrle: I
haven’t a short wind in my body, but, aside from being bubblegum
self-psychoanalysis, the book
is an aphoristic odyssey through aesthetics, art, beauty, sexuality, atrocity,
mortality and salvation contextualized by the grisly dooms of Queen Marie
Antoinette, Ripper-victim Mary Jane Kelly and Sharon Tate.

Mme.
Perry: The reader is guided in an orderly
manner into some shocking, sharply defined and richly pigmented places from
Invocation to Sermon to Benediction. How did you determine the order of the
book?

DH: Early on the book was intended to be about only Sharon Tate and the Mansons,
but the more I wrote the less important they became.The butchery at the Polanski home on that
doomful night on August 9, 1969 seemed to be more of a culmination or a logical
fruit of some of the universal concerns I was having.That’s why I pushed the Tate/Manson part to
the end.Since I think the murders had
something to do with what I call the War on Beauty, I decided to start the book
with spiels on aesthetics and art (Reverse Galatea).In hyperbolic, Decadent fashion beauty is
praised above all else, echoing Dostoyevsky’s love for Shakespeare and Raphael
over the serfs’ freedom and even one’s entire nation.

Author David Herrle

Of
course, not far from such lofty things lurk human crustaceans’ envy and rage, mutilating
tantrums and the mob’s tendency to pull down mountains and replace them with
molehills, so the part about the French Revolution (Saint Guillotine) followed
naturally.Opponents of the death
penalty beheaded the king and queen (and many, many other folks); humanitarians
spilled blood with glee.From there I
widened the scope of atrocious behavior, including the advent of the Bomb, and
explored the anxiety over death and need for a genuine lifeline from
existential despair (Black Dahlia Nihilismus).The illusory salvation of the lofty and beautiful is exposed, as is the
pent rage, the will to power and the latent Caligulas in so many disgruntled artists.Beauty and art can’t save us.﻿﻿﻿﻿

Neither
can sex.The next part (The Pink
Cathedral) deals with sex, lust, the glory and degradation of bodies, pornography,
even the problematic cuteness of Eva Braun (who married one of history’s
biggest death-dealers).

﻿﻿Of
course, death is never far from sex.Thanatos and Eros are first-cousins.This lead me to Jack the Ripper, the killer of whores (Yours Truly,
Mathematicus).However, I consider this
phenomenon to be more about victim Mary Jane Kelly than the Ripper himself. This is the opposite of the Sharon Tate thing,
which is more about the Mansons than the gorgeous central victim.Peacenik hippies stabbed those people to meaty
pulp.While Charlie was recording songs
in Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s studio his harmless nonsense lyrics “digh de day”
eventually turned into “die today.”Do
the math.So the slaughter of Tate and
her friends closes the book (Charlie Manson and the Scorpion Children).

Those
six parts served as a nice white for the hardboiled egg, but the shell and yolk
were missing.That’s why I designed the
introductory Evocation, the Sermon interlude and the ultimate Benediction.

Actress Sharon Tate

CK: I don't think Sharon Tate gets the pop culture
reverence she deserves. What fascinates you about Tate and her legacy?

﻿﻿DH: Indeed.For all of her beauty’s
fame and the infamy of her violent doom, Sharon isn’t really on the tip of the cultural
tongue, especially among later generations.She should be.And, sadly, I
think she should be less sung for her actual achievements and more for her
being an unfortunate symbol of the victimization of the lofty and beautiful
done by lowlifes, artists-become-tyrants, the deranged spiral of the utopian
spirit.It’s infuriating but
understandable that Charlie Manson is a household name and a presence – even
inspiration! – in pop culture.He’s up
there with Mao and Che.

﻿﻿Despite
my sympathy and desire for vengeance for Sharon, I can’t say that I’ve ever
been very impressed with her profession as an actor, although she’s absolutely
dazzling in movies such as The Wrecking
Crew, Valley of the Dolls and The Fearless
Vampire Killers.She was an Earth
angel, an aesthetic phenomenon, what I call a Reverse Galatea: sacralized
beauty, gorgeous body turned into inspiring sculpture.I suspect that she was viewed and treated
this way by many – if not most – people, maybe including her husband, even
though she also was a delightful, sharp, conflicted, emotional, thoughtful
human being (think Marilyn Monroe).For
this reason I minimized her voice and focus in the book.Even the hero who saves her (in what one
reviewer called “a noir superhero ending ...a dreamlike divine comedy”) can muster
only “Big fan, Sharon” as she kisses him in thanks.Oops.Spoiler!

MP: Artist David Van Gough, whose work The Valley is the
cover art for the book, said “I make no bones when I say that I believe
Herrle’s work is as profound as Ginsberg's Howl
and every bit the master painter with epigrams.” What was your reaction on
reading that?

DH: Needless to say, I was quite honored.Though I dislike Ginsberg’s work, I recognize his talent and the
artistic importance of what he did.The
compliment was meant as a high one, and I take it as such, especially since it
comes from an astute, clever and masterful artist.Gough’s necrorealism made me rethink my aversion
to so-called macabre art, and he’s become a treasured colleague.

Author/Poet Collin Kelley

CK: If you were a member of the Manson Family, what
would your nickname be?

DH: A wicked challenge.Part of me
doesn’t want to even consider it due to the despisal I have for the
Mansons.Another part sees the humor in
it.Also, nicknames factor heavily in my book.The narrator takes on the titles Scarlet
Pimpernel, Sophie Scholl, The White Rose, Davidus Thermidor, Thermidorean Gray,
History’s Etch-A-Sketch.Manson-girl
Susan Atkins named her son Zezose Zadfrack Glutz, which I guiltily find
hilarious, so I’ll lighten up and choose Robin Hood Goodfellow – or Havelock
Ellison. We wish you much success with Sharon Tate And The Daughters Of Joy, David, and invite you to return very soon.

Thank you all - Eugenia, Michael, Kerry, Collin and David - for the comments and compliments. This book is such a magnificent work and I still read parts of it over again. I find it lends to the salon feel to have some discussion continuing in the comments.